Day 5 - IFA International

KITCHEN LIFESTYLE

KITCHEN LIFESTYLE Smarter, Connected and Easier to Use The latest appliances from Bosch shine at IFA Harald Friedrich CEO, Bosch Home Appliances (…) apart from the basic features appliances need to have, it’s all about convenience (…) Hall 3.1 Stand 101 What are the key trends to watch out for this year at IFA in major appliances? We put the question to Harald Friedrich – CEO of Bosch Home Appliances. For us at Bosch it's finding the easiest way to perfect results, so the key technology we are showing is our new Series 8 baking oven, which will be launched onto the market in December. Its main features include the PerfectBake sensor, the PerfectRoast meat probe and the new 4D hot air system. The PerfectBake sensor, exclusively available from Bosch, physically detects when a baking process has finished when the moisture content in the oven has reached its highest level. Another trend is connectivity. Some of our new Series 8 ovens are network-compatible and can be controlled remotely via Wi-Fi using a mobile device - either a tablet or a smartphone. We will also present a new connected dishwasher. And apart from the basic features appliances need to have, it’s all about convenience, and that's why we will also present new, even more silent appliances in our new “Silent” range. Sales of your company’s super efficient home appliances have been rising sharply again over the past year. You must be very proud. Please tell us how you achieved this. Well Bosch has been communicating on the topic of energy efficiency for quite some years now, and we have been doing this for several years in a very intensive way. We created the “green technology inside” label for our most energy efficient products. It gives consumers a clear indication of which products are particularly energy efficient, and this is important, as energy efficiency has become one of the most important buying criteria. What will the coming launch of Bosch & Siemens Home Connect bring to consumers? For consumers, it is easier than ever before to have a connected appliance. We use the Home Connect standard; there is no need for installation, people can use their own Wi-Fi. They can use their smart device, download an app and start using their appliances “online” so there are big benefits for them. These include advice on using the device, or controlling the products from one’s mobile device in the same way as you see it on the product’s display itself. There are other services, like recipes where for example, one can prepare dishes and send the baking programming directly to the oven. How will the rollout of Home Connect take place? Since Germany is our biggest market we will start here, and include Austria, in 2014 with ovens and dishwashers with more products to come in the next year. Other countries will start successively from 2015, beginning with the UK and the Netherlands . What kinds of people will buy this? Well I think today most people through all age groups have Wi-Fi at home and use smart devices, so actually there is no limitation. As you mentioned in the beginning, you’re presenting Bosch’s flagship oven, the Series 8, at IFA. Could you tell us a little more about this? Well as it is a product that is very visible in the kitchen, it was important for us to develop something that would fit perfectly into this environment. Design is a key element, and we are using intuitive controlling to pilot this device, combined with a TFT display, so it is a very modern approach – a combination of design and control functions - and this is what is so exciting about this new product. How important is IFA as part of your global marketing push? For us this is the platform to present our innovations - for example the Series 8 ovens but also of course all the other novelties that we present to the market. It's really the “launch window” for us and from this point of view it's one of the most important fairs we have. We expect a lot of visitors to our booth this year again - both national and international. 18